Monday 30 September 2013

New Gate fitted and an exciting phone call from a yarn company...

We did a little every night until the remaining bit of wall was now stacked at the bottom of the garden, and fitted the gate and side fence panelling on Friday night.
Yvonne from next door has donated to our joint front gate, two fabulous black ceramic pots, she already had them in the back garden and they are exactly 18" which is the exact measurement of the side panels to to new gate..how lucky was that?
We just need to fill them with something trendy and easy to care for too!
Any suggestions welcome?
 
None of us can beleive the extra useable space we have created, all that is left to do now is the inner gates one for each of us and then something with the damaged concrete, bu that will wait now until next spring.
 
We have a new loo on order and have decided on the floor covering, I think?
 small mosaic, even smaller mosaic and light in colour, wide wood planks, tiny narrow wood strips, or 3 black tiles all different.....all viynal so it is waterproof but have me made a decision?
we both liked the tiny narrow wood strips top left of second picture, but seeing them on the screen, i not sure now!!!!!
Decision to be made by tonight.
 
EXCITING PHONE CALL.....
Last week I received a very exciting phone call from a yarn company.
I don't want to say too much just yet until it is in the bag....
But they want me to design 4-6 patterns in their yarns ready for a Trade Show in February....
How exciting is that?
 
I have received the brief and the yarns to play with and have already spent a good few hours playing with ideas crocheting small stitch samples and filling my sketch book.....
All to be completed before Christmas so they can have them photographed and printed ready for the show.
 

Monday 23 September 2013

Gate update....it arrived

although i didn't know as no one rang the bell they just left it at the front of the house...just thought i would check to see and there it all was...BUT!!
 
the wrong gate...ooops someone will need to come back and change it won't they
we ordered a round top the same as the old one. and it will stay natural wood and have a nice new silver coloured ring handle on it too.
wonder why no one rang the bell?
x
 

SLEEP WHO HAS TIME TO SLEEP?

Another busy week, wall almost down, new decorative fence panels fitted, and i am so proud of myself too, all on my own I shortened all the panels by anything from half an inch to 2" the spaces were all different. Redid all the joints too lol
And all those bricks at the bottom of the garden...I moved them all around 500 bricks. For someone who doesn't move from the crochet sofa a lot I think I did OK.
 The new big gate for the front will be delivered today...the rest can then wait until we can get to it.
 
En Suite...
Phil did 95% of the shower but I was there to fetch, carry and hold things up right, well done Phil...might be ready to test waterproofness hehe if there is such a word tonight.
 
We just need the new floor covering and a new loo next..all go around here lol
Hugs x

Monday 16 September 2013

TOO MANY DIY JOBS AT THE SAME TIME.......

The wall between our house and the house next door was a bit dodgy, to say the least.
Almost all the pillars holding the fence panels needed to be rebuilt, all a bit wobbly and could fall on some one at any time.
 
 The last owner of our house had built a wall between the houses from the garage at the bottom of the garden to the front of the houses and given us both a very narrow pathway each......knowing we were going to do something about this unstable wall next door suggested that it might be better if we removed the obstructing part of the wall...a plan was hatched between us all and it all started this weekend.
 A neighbour and friend was a builder and came Saturday to rebuild the pillars for us.....Phil had to work Saturday morning so I helped removed the cement on the demolished bricks.
I did one pillar to Johns 5....I did try lol

Thanks John...A job well done, all covered against the awful weather that was forecast for Sunday.
But Sunday came and it wasn't bad at all a bit windy as the day went on but Phil and I got ourselves gloved and ready to remove the offending wall.... the drill blew up after about 10 minutes so off we wet to buy a new toy for Phil to play with and continued to remove the approximately 500 bricks one by one....some came off clean but other will still need the old cement cleaning off.
Originally we were going to skip them all but decided to try and sell them instead after seeing a  house programme on TV.
I didn't realise how expensive brick are.
We managed about half of the wall before it started to rain and we had had enough...Phil broke them free and I with the help of a little trolley moved and piled them at the bottom of the garden ready for a final clean up and sale.

We're well on the way to a much wider pathway for us all.
A new single, wider gate at the front to replace the two small gates and then two separate gates at the back with a usable space between the houses and gates for all the bins and much better access.
 
En Suite tiling?
 How it looked after 5 hours, we love the new tiles and it actually makes the en suite look bigger...really, really please with them
But we cheated lol...
We were about to put the tiles on the wall a week ago Saturday and I really didn't feel up to the job, very big heavy tiles, so I rang the tiler we had used for the kitchen floor,  
another John.
He was able to come Wednesday and did the two walls we needed doing first, all in about 7 hours.
 
It would have taken us days and I'm sure we wouldn't have done such a great job.
 
THIS WEEKS DIY.....
Weather permitting tonight we will try to remove the other half of the wall out side and hopefully by the weekend we will have the shower enclosure and the new shower fitted and working. Plus i still need to paint the two sets of double doors with the new panelling!
 
Cross everything for us will you?
Too many jobs going on at the same time
 
 

Saturday 7 September 2013

PDF file Individual patterns for sale

I have been asked many times for some of my patterns to be released as PDF files  
4 are now available
Mail me if you want a copy £5 per pattern and I will let you know how to get a copy.

The Bobble Hexagon blanket

The Giant 8 petal flower rug


Noo Noo Camper blanket


Star blanket/curtain







Monday 2 September 2013

WINTER WARDROBE SORT OUT....

A new necklace started me re thinking what I should be wearing.
Some killer heels.... I bought on holiday in February....never worn yet! Do you buy thing you love but never wear?

I decided i needed to put more effort into dressing up and wear some of my nice clothes again,  so i am going to do a bit more dressing up this winter or else I might as well send all my clothes to the Charity shop!

It took me a while to find 'my' shade of orange lol
Ever had your colours done?

So this will be the start to a new wardrobe, a new me......some old items and a few new key pieces to bring all the old items that still fit and I like together.
The biggest reason for this......
I caught a glimpse of my self the other day, still in my old comfortable nightie at lunch time!!!!!!!!
an old bag lady LOOKED BACK AT ME.....NOOOOOOO!
oh! boy was that and eye opener, I threw it in the bin immediately and started to think hard
about me, my age and what I've been wearing these days.
SO...
some old, some new, some made, some bought...but I will not be giving up on my self and lie around in boring but comfortable joggers and an old t-shirt
OR MY OLD NIGHTIE AGAIN..promise
I came across this picture too...at a Status Quo Concert last year.

What was I thinking?...I need a good kick up the bum going out dressed like this to a rock concert.
More colour needed....like my craft room lol...
I've cleaned all my silver jewellery too, so tarnished it was almost black....
SAD to say the least.
ADVANCED STYLE
 great post on orange and the older woman
HERE